Names & Faces of Historical Significance

Connie Ning

(1944 - )

Connie’s desire to live in the mountains – not have a view of them – is what caused Ted and Connie Ning to relocate from Southeast Denver to Evergreen in 1976 when Ted, a urologist, was finishing his residency at the University of Colorado. They’d met while attending Northwestern in Chicago where she’d grown up.

Ted had been drafted into the army out of his internship; and while he was in Vietnam, they’d had a second child. Connie became involved with a group sending aid to Vietnamese orphanages, giving talks and raising money. They adopted a child from Vietnam, and Connie was busy “with a flock of kids.”

Friends of Children of Vietnam

The Nings helped to start an adoption agency in Denver – Friends of Children of Vietnam – one of seven agencies that participated in the evacuation of more than 2,500 Vietnamese orphans during Operation Babylift in April of 1975.